Whirligig Girl

Good, because the latest version is released. Jool is now a singularity called Shimmy.

First off, I've decided on a name for the black hole. The black hole has been relocated to Dres (now the Mun is fine), and has been named Shimmy, because his streams are so engaging that you get pulled in and can not escape! It also has the nickname "The Shimularity." I had thought some about the gravitational lensing effect that the distortion of space around gravitational sources (In this case it would be very visible due to the immensely high gravitational pull of Shimmy) From a small amount of searching I found that something called a "World Transformed Refraction" could produce the effect in a fixed location. Then I read here that THIS might work. Finally, the simplest explanation came through: And in response: So then I started thinking about wormholes. Now, I've been thinking for wormholes for a long time, and seeing Interstellar helped me to truly figure out how wormholes really work in the spacetime-fabric analogy and even the flatland analogy. Basically, the premise of the wormhole (if we ignore the gravital lensing for a moment) from a graphical standpoint is this. You take a point in one location and map the entire spherical view around it. Then you take the sphere and you view it from the outside. (Like how when you take an outside view of an interior space and the leading walls are invisible, like this.) Apparently you could also do this with reflection mapping, and it would be more realistic. You take the reflection of the sky, then use a reflection mapped object at the planet. This accounts for the appearance of most of the wormhole's visual area. Then near the edge of the wormhole, when the gravitational lensing is added, you get the intense distortions of the very edge of the hole. So now I have an idea of how to make it look like a wormhole, how would you get KSP to do the teleportation? From thinking of the patched-conic-approximation and matching it topologically to the spacetime fabric illustration, I figured the following. First you create two planets. Cosmologically speaking, they're the same object. From the game's standpoint they are two separate objects. If we're doing KSPTV streamers, then the names are obvious. Dahud and Jayk. Their diameter would be that of the throat of the wormhole that is being simulated. Then you make the surface's mesh that of the inside-out sphere. Worst case scenario you get a pseudo-realistic planet where the terrain is a map of the skybox. Then apply the graviational lensing shader. Now comes the part where you have to implement the orbital mechanics of KSP into it. In many other games, you'd be using goofy small scale wormholes only a few meters across, and you just teleport from one center to another. Here, you have to do it differently. Let's take a scenario of a ship falling towards Dahud. at the moment of impact, you teleport to the surface of Jayk on the exact opposite side of the globe. You also reverse the velocity you had falling towards Dahud and turn it into velocity moving away from Jayk. You'd then be under the normal influence of patched-conics gravity until you fall back down to the surface of Jayk. If you simply raise your periapsis above the surface of Jayk, you won't fall in again. Aside from the peculiar appearance of the wormhole, you might as well just be in the SOI of any other planet as far as manuverability goes. Interestingly, you could get this stable perpetual figure-eight orbit. So then let's say for the sake of argument that once a mod like this is created and published, we want a good lore and game experience for the object. Fear not! It needs a name to describe it singularly, so we'll call the cosmic object itself "Tanuki" and the SOIs of the respective mouths "Dahud" and "Jayk" respectively. Dahud Tanuki is a peculiar phenomenon in space called a wormhole. It is not a naturally occurring object, so it is quite a mystery. It was once thought to be two objects, Dahud and Jayk. Dahud is the closest one to Kerbin, and was discovered when Wilbury Kerman realized that heat should not be warping his telescope in the arctic. It is like a black hole in that it has infinite density. The closest thing to a "surface" it has is the throat. Think of it as a 3D hole in the patchwork of space. This "event horizon" is the place at which space around Dahud folds into Jayk. Dahud and Jayk were both renamed Tanuki, after the lead engineer who built the telescope and the detection system. Mass=4.10023×10^22 kg Diameter=592,023 meters (approx. the diameter of Kerbin) Surface Gravity=3.12 g Jayk Tanuki is a peculiar phenomenon in space called a wormhole. It is not a naturally occurring object, so it is quite a mystery. It was once thought to be two objects, Dahud and Jayk. Jayk is the furthest side of the hole from Kerbin. It was discovered when echo signals from a radio transmission where picked up at a radio telescope. Once the location of the echo was discovered, the scientists were baffled. Full funding was devoted to figure out what the mysterious object was. At first it was thought to be another universe entirely, but then higher detailed observations permitted the realization that Dahud and Jayk were the same type of object. A directed transmission was sent to Dahud, and was picked up by a telescope pointed at Jayk. It was then realized that Dahud and Jayk were in fact the same object. Dahud and Jayk were both renamed Tanuki, after the lead engineer who built the telescope and the detection system. Mass=4.10023×10^22 kg Diameter=592,023 meters (approx. the diameter of Kerbin) Surface Gravity=3.12 g (The Mass & Diameter values were the result of some minor playtesting on Dres to find a high-density that would not cause major problems with the physics engine) So the question that must be answered is: Is it possible? From a mechanics standpoint I don't see why not. HyperEdit is capable of teleporting spacecraft, and the visual bit is just a shader and is not strictly required. The only thing standing in the way of this idea becoming a reality is the limit of my coding skills. It would very much be an extremely interesting mod to be developed. If anyone would like to do most of the project for me while I crack the whip help me learn how to implement such a mod, or even just help with the coding side of things, PM me and we can get a discussion going.

Is it possible to convert a Cubical Map (Like a Skybox) into a Spherical Map (Like a planet texture) using simple tools or some kind of converter tool? Yes, I have a reason. No, I'm not ready to tell you. Yes it deals with planets in KSP.

I suppose that might be possible, but calling it easy would be like calling the sun small.

Huge discovery made about event horizons. I found a HUGE science result. Black holes in KSP actaully have Event Horizons from which crafts can not escape. This event horizon is based totally on floating point error accumulating until you get pulled by a cube rule instead of a square rule.

Most of those problems are from KSPRC.

I'll test this now.

I have a hunch that there's some hard-coded limit for how small a planet can get before the game slaps you in the face with it.

I won't use the cupola until it's no longer a control pod at all. It should only be used for observations IMO, and that big control panel definitely gets in the way of viewing. Another thing: The IVA is too bright. It needs to be a bit darker! - - - Updated - - - We need a stockalike/venalike robotic arm to go with a new Cupola!

http://gamelab.mit.edu/research/openrelativity/ I wonder if it would be possible to implement this as a mod for KSP?

I just saw this today, and I will never stop saying that this movie is the BEST Sci-Fi movie. Period. Better than 2001. Better than Gravity. I cried several times, especially during the Launch scene and on the spinny-docky-scene I was on the edge of my seat because I had actually had to do something VERY similar to this in KSP once!

Here's the tragically failed config file I ended with. It's supposed to be a normal KSP scale MunHole config. REALSOLARSYSTEM { wrap = false spheresOnly = false compressNormals = true //MunBlackHole mod for KSP 0.25. Ludicrously simple. It is just a resizing of the mun to make it really small. Mun { Radius = 0.01 Mass = 9.7600236E+011 rotationPeriod = 60 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 12000000 } CelestialBodyScienceParams { flyingAltitudeThreshold = 100 spaceAltitudeThreshold = 101 } } Basically, what seemed to happen was that the Mun had NO gravity at all and it would have a terrain that was still much bigger than the super-small size I tried to set it to.

This mod is abandoned. Go away.

I laughed a bit, because I've been a member of the KSP community several times longer than you both!

http://www.twitch.tv/gregroxmun/ Streaming NOW! The Kerbal Space Missions with GregroxMun! You suggest the missions.

Adam Al Alan = Mercury style space suit. Archibald Buzz = Apollo-stlye space suit. Carson Chad Charlie Chris Chuck Dean Ed Edan Edlu = Space-Shuttle style Orange suit (but different from Jeb, Bill and Bob's suit) Frank Franklin Gus (Gemini-style Space Suit.) Hans Jack James Jim Kirk (This suit.) Kurt Lars Luke Mac Matt Phil Randall (A very simple suit that almost looks like it comes from a comic strip ) Scott Scott (Whatever THIS shirt is. Sean Steve Tom Will

You act like that's less than being the first kerbals in the game. These were the First. Kerbals. Ever. If it wasn't for Kelly, Kirk, Kurt, Sara, and Jonny Kerman then KSP wouldn't even have been created. Besides, I'm not even suggesting that you get these kerbals at the start! I'm just suggesting that when they DO spawn, they get special suits! Either Orange suits or Tinfoil Suits or something! Honestly I'd kinda like most specially named Kerbals to have a special suit.

They are critical to the experience. The lore is what keeps KSP from just being another game about spaceships. Really, this isn't actually about lore, it's about IRL stuff.

A trailer for KSP 0.12. This was a free version. It is actually totally legal to download this version without paying for it. [Hello Dolly, or WALL-E? Which do you recognize?] Anyway, I didn't make this. But I do find the flag and the implied EVA interesting. (Keep in mind that EVAs weren't implemented until and flags until .)BTW, 0.16 was my first paid version, and holds a special place in my heart.

WEll that would make sense except that these Kerbals are even MORE original than Jeb, Bill, and Bob.

The solution is that you'd meld each launcher in the garden into one part.

... I just realized I never made a post in this thread!

AH, yeah, I misread.

So I had a thought that would implement helmet removal on Kerbin in a fun way. You can remove helmets anywhere but they wouldn't just poof in a vacuum. They would get an unhappy face and collapse, with no control. You have 1 second to put the helmet back on. They don't die, they just become unconscious. Another Kerbal can then put the helmet back on, and he'll wake up again. This could also implement life support in a fun way. If you run out of snacks, this would happen. If you run out of snacks inside a ship, your Kerbals would KO, and the command pod would cease to provide control. The great thing is that the player can fix these problems. They could send a rescue mission to feed their Kerbs or just bring them back home. You could even send rescue missions for stupid helmet removing kerbals. Obviously, KO'd Kerbals would have a constant drain on your reputation. On Hard-mode they would perish after too long KO'd. Also, there should probably be a benefit to removing the helmet. On Laythe and Kerbin, removing the helmet would allow you to bypass your own oxygen system and survive without using up your space-suit's air.

You forget how small a kilometer really is. If you simply burn upwards a bit you can get out of it, and with KSP's smallified world you could probably get away with a thickness of half that.